Any way to know how much bandwith used?

I'm a newbie to Second Life, but jumped in with both feet. I'm on a plan that limits my peak time DL to 5GB - something that has never been a problem, so I thought I had plenty of "room" to play SL and not hit the limit.

Well, it's only one week into the cycle, and I've already eaten up 4GB! Yikes! I'm already nearly addicted though, and I'm trying to figure out how I can play SL at decent hours, while staying below the 5GB limit (yea, this month is a wash).

I can't change plans, I'll be moving in a few months and then I'll be able to get a "bigger" service at my new place.

Is there any way to know, or control, how much data is being downloaded while in Second Life? Are there activities I can avoid doing that'll help keep the limits down?

Otherwise, I'll be only able to visit on the weekends. Not all bad, since my midnight is just past dinnertime PST ... But it means much less sleep on the weekends

Any help or advice is appreciated.

Kira T.

I think if you set you draw distance to 64 and stay in one place that would reduce the number of bits sent. Possibly turning off sounds. Not using voice chat. No videos or streaming music. When you do somewhere do it by teleporting, not flying, so you don't have to get the data to describe anywhere inbetween points A and B.

I think there is a command line parameter that might help...
-noinvlib

keeps your inventory from autoloading... I think, if it keeps you from accessing it at all then skip it.

-quitafter <seconds>
may help you monitor your time online

some of the other possible parmeters might help, found here
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Client_parameters

you can also limit bandwidth used at one time in the preferences, but this will likely just slow you down....

to be honest a 5gb limit is gonna hurt... avoid malls like the plague, and anywhere with a lot of Av's coming and going, and places with tons of high use textures.

oh yeah, never ever clear your cahe if you can help it and set is as large as possible

best of luck

This is a tough one since 5 GB is like nothing in SL terms. Imagine that everything you see on your screen, every single texture, building, location, avatar, movement, everything has to be transferred to your pc first. Every movement you make, every turn of the head, every single action has to be reported back to the server. So you see where the data flow is coming from. Honestly, think about upgrading your connection soon. You won't be happy with 5 GB if you plan to stay in SL.

Hi

You could install a downlad metering program like:

http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/

This will help you keep track of your download usage.

Gomez

Hi Kira - I came into SL with 12GB and regularly got throttled after about three weeks, which is as bad as being on dial-up (shocking download limits generally in my part of the world). I changed providers and now have 30GB +10GB offpeak - happily, more than I need most of the time. I second Novis's advice - best to upgrade as quickly as you can, to as much as you can reasonably afford.

If you spend a lot of time exploring you'll definitely use a lot of bandwidth, not least in these early days if you're travelling around finding freebies, or picking from the money trees (probably cheaper in the latter case to just buy some Lindens!). I also increased my RAM from .5GB to 1.5GB, although 2GB would be even better, - that definitely helped with lag.

If you're running a Mac rather than a PC, check out the additional tips for Mac users.

Gomez, thanks for the link - I've always wanted one of those!

Kira - I'm on satellite internet (HughesNet) and have a daily bandwidth limit (up and down) that I have to live with - I use Bandwidth Meter Pro to keep track of usage www.bandwidth-meter.net/

What I do in SL definitely affects my bandwidth - clubs, shopping, exploring can really consume huge amounts, whereas, sitting in my skybox with a few friends chatting, consumes almost nothing.

I have my draw distance at the minimum and the graphics detail sliders at minimum too (Preferences - Graphics), plus, after I've tp'd somewhere I let stuff rez, then slide my bandwidth down to the minimum - 50kbps (Preferences - Network). Having said that, just setting it to 50 doesn't mean that's all SL will use, in some areas, it's much higher - have no idea why.

Even with all the extra precautions I take - I'd have a hard time staying under 5gb a month, so, you should look at a better plan.

Oh, and, welcome to SL Kira - it's worth the hassle...............mostly *grin*

Wow - as far as the OP...

I asked exactly the same question, only I asked it in the technical forum because I thought that was the right place for it. Nobody there had a clue. I shoulda asked here. TWO answers!

Thanks, gang!

Work around: Find a free wireless internet cafe with a high speed connection and play SL on a laptop. There are lots of those around where I live.

Drivin - glad this thread helped !! Bandwidth usage is a complicated thing - it depends on where you are, what you're doing, who else is there, how long you've been there and what your graphics preferences are set to.

I range from 14 kbps down / 11 kbps up at my skybox to 1 mbps down / 56 kbps up at busy clubs. My satellite connection speed is 1 mbps max, so for other people bandwidth usage at busy places could well be higher.

To the OP - if your bandwidth is only capped during peak times, you might want to organize your SL life around it - shop, party, explore during off-peak hours, and sit in a quiet sim and chat/IM during peak hours........

Ctl-shift-1 And Ctl-shift-2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimum_Online

They are very secretive about their caps.